The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-02-12

don't know whether there is a God or
not. We don't know whether God
ever inspired the prophets to speak, or
the authors of the Bible to write. We
may live on as spirits after death. But
we do not know. There may be worlds
to come, in which the wrongs of the
earth will all be made right somehow.
1t seems as if it ought to be SO. 1t
would even up affairs as a just God
ought to do. But it is not scientific to
believe it. We have never seen a
thought born without brain. We
have never heard voice from heaven
that we are sure came from the spirit
ual world. There may be moral law
Of God, but whether we obey God or
man in keeping it, we are not sure. We
do not 60 to the house of God, because
we do not know there is God; and we
are not trying to save our souls, be-
cause we do not know whether we have
souls immortal to be saved, or not!"
These Agnostics are like little chill
dren who try to know more than their
teachers. What would you think of
children eight or ten years old, talking
on this wise. "How do we know whether
we can believe our teachers or not !?
They say the world is round. 1t does
not look to be. All the evidence they
have for it, is our text books. If the
world were round, we would all fall off
in twenty-four hours We can't be-
lieve their theory Of gravitation, be-
cause it is contrary to all of our expert
ence We have never seen a globe that
would hold loose objects on it on the
under side. Our teachers and the sci
entiic world may be mistaken. We
are inclined to believe the earth is fiat,
but then-we don't know!"
These Agnostics are only such chill
dren grown up. These scientific Ag-
nostics believe in hundred things just
as mysterious to them as is the exist
ence and supreme government of spir-
itual God. The existence and supre-
macy of God is as evident fact in the
moral world, as is the existence and OPP
Grafton of gravitation in the material
universe. People in our day have
achieved so much in machinery and
science, that many have become con-
ceited, and imagine that they can ex-
plain everything by physical laws; and
that about all the God there is in the
universe, is composed of force, gravita-
ton, electricity. and possibly few
other occult powers. Deeper thought
inevitably takes us back of these meth
DDS of material motion, law, order, and
development. Back of all evolution is
there something having what we call
intelligence, reason, providence, wis
dom, love, and moral attributes but
the being from whom these moral
and spiritual attributes radiate, so fan
transcends our comprehension, that we
call him the Infinite Spirit, the Spirit
ual Father and Mother of the universe,
whose cradles are worlds, whose fire.
sides are suns, whose families are uni
verses, and whose material universes
are the grand moral nurseries of the
great spiritual universe,
Gods work therefore, is primarily
and principally moral and spiritual.
And for this reason the church ought
to be the most popular and oft frequent
ed school of life, and religion the most
familiar object of life and converse
ton. But our age is so environed by
materialism and the over-estimation of
material things, that few are they who
want to work for God, or with him, few
are they interested in churches and
church work, and about the last theme
with multitudes is religion. Churches
that get the people must be very fine
and inviting in our cities. People will
attend them if plain in the country, be-
cause there are no theatres there to run
as their rivals. And the preachers gen.
orally popular, are they who amuse and
entertain the people, rather than they
who instruct and edify congregations
who seriously desire to learn to more
successfully lay up their treasures be-
yond rust, the moth and the thief.
Gods invisible church on earth is
what those who belong to no church
call the "big church," the great church
of humanity. 1t has been said by sew
eral, that all our now existing Christ
ian churches are only so many roads in
to one great Christian church of the fu-
ture. If this prophecy be eventually full
filled, it is not probable that any one
UNCONVENTIONAL church will be that
coming church of God. But some of
our UNCONVENTIONAL, or now existing
ing churches, will contribute more to-
ward the spirit, and faith, and life of
that universal Christian church than
others. And righteousness of spirit and
character, not orthodoxy Of theology
and creed, will be the object of such
coming church. And in that coming
church will be saved all the jewels and
gold tried in the fire from every church
now in existence. And we believe all
the essential features of the Universal